Stuttgart Ballet in O.C. in 2000

In an exclusive California engagement, the famous Stuttgart Ballet will make its Orange County Performing Arts Center debut during the center’s 2000 dance season.

The German company joins a lineup that includes the previously announced Bolshoi Ballet, Julio Bocca’s Ballet Argentina and American Ballet Theatre. Only ABT has appeared at the center before.

“It’s a really good season,” Judith O’Dea Morr, vice president of programming, said Tuesday.

“Putting together any season is a question of trying to find a balance between what we can make work, with what companies are available and also a question of the balance of our resources,” she said. “We really worked to make this tour of the Bolshoi happen.”

The Stuttgart Ballet will open the season Feb. 1-6 with John Cranko’s full-length “Onegin” and a program of shorter repertory.

“Onegin,” choreographed in 1965, will be danced to music by Tchaikovsky, but not to the score he wrote for his opera “Eugene Onegin.” The program of mixed repertory will be announced.

The Stuttgart troupe last appeared in the Southland in other repertory at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles in 1981. The National Ballet of Canada danced “Onegin” at the Pavilion in 1990.

Bocca’s Ballet Argentino will dance Oct. 27-29, 2000. Repertory will include a new tango danced to the music of Astor Piazzolla and works choreographed to music by other South American composers. The famed danseur also will appear in the “Don Quixote” pas de deux.

Bocca and his small troupe danced to taped music at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in 1994. But it’s still undetermined whether they’ll have live accompaniment in Costa Mesa. “It depends on what he choreographs for his new piece,” Morr said.

As announced, the Bolshoi will dance Alexei Fadeyechev’s “Don Quixote” and Leonid Lavrovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet,” June 27 through July 2. The Russian company will dance the same repertory week earlier at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

The Bolshoi last danced “Swan Lake” and other repertory in the Southland at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1996.

American Ballet Theatre will dance Ben Stevenson’s “Cinderella,” Dec. 19-24, typically “Nutcracker” time.

“I would not call this a substitute for ‘Nutcracker,’ ” Morr said. “It’s an opportunity for family holiday entertainment.”

“Cinderella” was danced by ABT at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles in 1997. This will be the New York company’s 13th engagement at the center.

ABT will unveil a new “Swan Lake” in New York in March. Orange County might see it “in the future,” Morr said.

“We’re about to begin five performances of [The Royal Swedish Ballet] ‘Swan Lake.’ When I look at programming, I try to give as broad a range as possible.”

Casting for all engagements will be announced. It remains to be seen if Orange County will see the luxury casting regularly seen in New York but often missing from ABT touring engagements.

“I know that Orange County is important to ABT, and I trust that [artistic director] Kevin McKenzie will make available the best dancers that he can,” Morr said.

Season subscriptions, to go on sale Aug. 22, will range from $40 to $239. Single tickets will range from $12 to $75. Information: (714) 556-2787.